Category 8 Ethernet Cable

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kshaw

Pre-takeoff checklist
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KShaw
Amazon now has some category 8 Ethernet network cable on its website for reasonable prices. According to the specifications, it offers 40 Gbps. I ordered three of these for modem-to-router, router-to-my TrueNAS server, and router to my Nvidia streaming box. Has anyone tried these?
 
No, but I’ve got a huge roll of cat5 I’ll let go cheap. :)
 
What does it take to put Cat 8 terminations on it?

Doesn't seem like dealing with all of the extra shielding will make terminating much fun.
 
I have only one Gigabit port in the whole house but thanks for letting me know about this amazing technology.

I have ordered a few to try out different lengths and topologies.

I will attach it close to the NAS and ensure that the cable is vertically up to wall as far as possible. I will report back as to the amazeballs speeds I get with my 10 year old laptops.
 
Gigabit works fine on 5e. I've got gigabit all over the place (and we have gig fiber to the house finally).
 
Yeah, unless you're doing something crazy (building a cluster?) I don't see you getting much advantage out of that. Even for 99% of uses of a local NFS, 10G-BaseT with Cat6/6A cable is more than enough. I would be tempted to put in Cat7 or Cat8 if I were building a new house for future-proofing purposes, but even then I would recognize I was probably going way overboard.
 
I'm sure you know that your network is as fast as the slowest component. So if you connect 1Gbps devices together using cable capable of 40Gbps, you get... 1Gbps.

For future-proofing, I don't see the harm, although I didn't know we were up to category 8 already. :D

If you just want 40Gbps, I use Mellanox ConnectX-3 cards with optical SFP+ wiring. The components are cheap as hell for the bandwidth they provide, as the tech is a bit older now, and the drivers can be fussy. I have dual port cards in my workstations and my NAS, and the whole thing was about $150 in gear. Cabling was half of it. Makes saving VMWare containers over the wire much more tolerable.
 
AggieMike88 said:
FTFY.

I remember the days of the 8 MHz Intel 286 and being happy with that.
Click to expand...

8 MHz? You had 8 MHz? Our systems were measured in cycles. We didn't have any fancy operating systems either, just ones and zeros, and ones were in short supply.
 
you don't sincerely believe that using a Cat-7 or Cat-8 cable will make your consumer-grade equipment, using 1Gb or 10Gb connections, faster, do you?

Is there consumer stuff yet using 25Gb?
 
kshaw said:
Amazon now has some category 8 Ethernet network cable on its website for reasonable prices. According to the specifications, it offers 40 Gbps. I ordered three of these for modem-to-router, router-to-my TrueNAS server, and router to my Nvidia streaming box. Has anyone tried these?
Click to expand...

For modem-to-router and router-to-Truenas? You're serious?
 
When I get them, I will do some upload and download speed tests before and after and post them. If I see speed increases, I will replace the cable on all my streaming devices.
 
I doubt that the hardware ports on your equipment supports anything above 1GB. 10GB Copper ports are just now finding their way into the home-pro market, and they are not cheap.
 
kshaw said:
When I get them, I will do some upload and download speed tests before and after and post them. If I see speed increases, I will replace the cable on all my streaming devices.
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You're most likely not gonna see any difference at all. Your cables are probably not the limiting factor in your speed; it'll be your equipment. Most likely your equipment is 1000Base-T (1G), unless it's really old 10BT or 100BT. In all those cases, the cable isn't going to be the limiting factor. Even if you have the brand new and quite expensive 10G equipment, your old cables are going to be capable of carrying those speeds over short distances. Cat8 is overkill. If you want more speed, a better investment is to upgrade your equipment.


That being said, if I ever build a house, I'll probably string cat 8 just for future proofing. But I doubt I'll ever need that capability in my lifetime.

[edit]
And if you'e doing upload and download tests to the internet, the speed is going to be governed by what you've paid your ISP to provide. Even there, 1Gb connections aren't all that common, yet.
 
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I have to wonder if the tech will ever plateau. Just like screen resolutions become more of a marketing ploy than an actual noticeable improvement anymore. There is only so much the human eye can see. We can already easily stream 4k video over today's speeds, how much more speed is needed?
 
midwestpa24 said:
I have to wonder if the tech will ever plateau. Just like screen resolutions become more of a marketing ploy than an actual noticeable improvement anymore. There is only so much the human eye can see. We can already easily stream 4k video over today's speeds, how much more speed is needed?
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Tech companies don't employ opticians to tell customers that the eye can't perceive a difference in higher resolutions. But they do employ lots of people in marketing to tell us we just have to have 8K, 16K, 64K...
 
Cat 6 was the fastest cable I remember. I've been retired for just 0ver 6 years and now you're talking about Cat 8? I'll go back to my quiet place...
 
The most future proof thing is a conduit. Then you can put whatever you want in there.
Now I need to go debug why the 10G fiber link on my desktop took a nap.
 
I ran FreeNAS + ZFS for years at home. Stuck to the Nas4Free branch when it split. Love ZFS..
 
Well, I did some tests CAT 6 vs. CAT 8 with Comcast Cable and did not see a lot of difference. Before was 119 download and 6 upload. After was 120 download and 6 upload.
 
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